Scores of youngsters turned out for the first junior parkrun from Poundbury’s Great Field – now organisers are inviting others to join them.
Junior parkruns take place all over the UK, South Africa and Australia at 9am on Sundays and there are now nearing 400 individual events, with most being in the UK.
Junior parkrun is a 2km run (not a race) and is open to children aged four to 14 who are welcome to run, walk, jog, hop, skip or jump the course and receive an official time, free of charge. All they need to do is register at parkrun.com beforehand and bring along their barcode.

Organiser Tom Edmonds said: “We were lucky enough to launch at The Great Field in Dorchester at the end of July after the successful launch of parkrun here back in October 2021. We were astounded at how many little smiling faces we have already welcomed, and look forward to welcoming more in the future.
“The event is not just for children though! We are super excited to be able to offer volunteering opportunities every week to anybody in our community, and if anybody would like to get involved with helping at this event I’d encourage them to email thegreatfieldjuniors@parkrun.com. All of the roles are straightforward and we can explain anything that isn’t clear.”
He added: “We are just the latest in a line of junior parkruns in Dorset. Moors Valley juniors has been running the longest, followed by Weymouth juniors and Upton House juniors. Slades juniors in Bournemouth regularly draws a large number of children and more recently Lyme Regis has joined the junior parkrun family at Cobb Gate juniors, launching in February this year.
“We’re over the moon to be able to bring such a great community event to Dorchester and to add another great attraction to The Great Field, alongside the new adventure playground and the amazing PiP café.
“I’d like to thank those who financially supported the launch of the event: CG Fry, Morris’s Homes, Ford Civil Engineering, Public Health Dorset, Dorchester Town Council and the Dorchester Casterbridge Rotary Club.
“Without these contributors we wouldn’t have been able to get the event off the ground.”